Big Bertha
Big Bertha, a type of 420-mm (16.5-inch) howitzer that was first used by the German army to bombard Belgian and French forts during World War I. Officially designated as the 42-cm kurze Marinekanone 14 L/12 in Räderlafette (“42-cm short naval canon 14 L/12 on wheeled carriage”), the gun was nicknamed “Big Bertha” by German soldiers after one of its projectiles completely destroyed Fort Loncin during the siege of Liège, Belgium. A total of 12 Big Berthas were put into service.
The gun was designed and built under great secrecy by the firm Krupp, Germany’s largest armaments manufacturer, in the years before the war for the sole purpose of overcoming modern Belgian and French forts built of reinforced concrete. At the time of their construction, the Big Berthas were the largest, most-powerful mobile artillery pieces in use by any army. The gun could fire projectiles weighing up to 1,785 pounds (810 kg) to a distance of almost six miles (9 km). The most widely used type of shell was equipped with a delayed-action fuse that exploded after having penetrated up to 40 feet (12 metres) of concrete and earth.
The gun and its carriage, when fully assembled, weighed about 47 tons (42,600 kg). The Big Berthas generally operated in pairs, and each was crewed and serviced by about 240 men. For transport to the battlefield, the howitzer was disassembled into components and loaded onto five special wagons pulled by gasoline-powered motor tractors. For long-distance travel, the road wagons and other equipment were moved by railway cars. After detraining, the transport wagons were hauled by tractor to the firing site, where the guns were reassembled. Under ideal conditions a Big Bertha could be assembled in six hours.
At the start of war, the German army had only two Big Berthas, and both saw their first action against the complex of Belgian forts around Liège on August 12, 1914. In five days, they destroyed a succession of forts and compelled the surrender of the city, thereby opening the way for the German army to advance westward through southern Belgium on its way to invading northern France. Farther to the west, the forts around the city of Namur were similarly battered into surrender by the Big Berthas and Škoda 305-mm (12-inch) mortars on August 21–25. Two more successful sieges followed at Maubeuge (August 25–September 8) and Antwerp (September 28–October 10). In 1915, as more Big Berthas were built and fielded (for a total of 12 guns), they produced similar results against Russian forts. The Battle of Verdun in 1916 proved to be the swan song for the Big Berthas, which were unable to penetrate the reinforced concrete of the modernized French forts at Douaumont and Vaux.
According to some sources, the nickname “Big Bertha” was bestowed on the guns in honour of Bertha Krupp von Bohlen und Holbach, owner of the Krupp firm. In popular usage, the name Big Bertha was also applied, incorrectly, by members of the Allied forces to the extreme long-range cannons with which the Germans shelled Paris in 1918; those guns are properly known as Paris Guns.